Off to Morocco this summer thanks to National Geographic

Professors Kevin Hefferan and Keith Rice of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s Department of Geography and Geology have been awarded a $16,000 grant from the National Geographic Society (NGS) to support field research in the Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

Both professors co-authored the grant and Hefferan will lead UWSP’s research delegation to Morocco the first two weeks of June.

"Our goal is to help solve the mysteries surrounding the geologic history of the region," said Hefferan. "We hope a multi-disciplinary approach will divulge some of the geologic secrets of the Anti-Atlas region. But the real story is having our students join the research and the study of Precambrian (600 million year old) rocks."

Joining UWSP faculty and students will be scientists from Syracuse University and the University of Cadi Ayyad, Marrakech, Morocco. Junior Kevin Bossenbroek, W5166 Kennedy Drive, Fond du Lac, and senior Justin Conner, 7023 Pine Lake Road, Wild Rose, will assist Hefferan.

Hefferan, Rice and UWSP geography/geology students will utilize state-of-the-art remote sensing and ground-based field sampling as they investigate the role of the mountains in the development of the 600 million-year-old Western Gondwana supercontinent. According to Hefferan, information gathered this June could be compared with fragments now exposed in North America and Europe. Colleagues from Syracuse University will use isotopic chemical techniques to precisely determine the age of igneous intrusions associated with the tectonic plate collisions in West Africa.

"These mountains contain some of the oldest ocean crust known on the earth," said Hefferan. "The data collected will test hypotheses linking the mountains with surrounding West African mountain belts, as well as with late Precambrian rocks now exposed in Western Europe and eastern North America."

Under Rice’s leadership, faculty and students within the department use these facilities for their research projects or undergraduate classes. "Our interdisciplinary approach allows us to partner with other scientists as well as engage our undergraduate students," said Rice. "More students are becoming involved in using GIS and this interest sparked the development of the department’s new GIS and Spatial Analysis minor."

Both Rice and Hefferan hope that their NGS research will improve overall understanding of the development of supercontinents and fold and thrust tectonics (the study of the earth’s structural features). This will be Hefferan’s fifth field excursion to Morocco.

-30-